The Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration have been working diligently for years to provide a smooth transition of medical records from active duty service to the VA Health Care system.
The intent has been to create a seamless transition to the veteran status and not leave the vet in no mans zone for months while they seek VA health care benefits.
Recently the VA Secretary, Eric Shineski shocked some reporters when he stated that, “trying to do seamless transition when a youngster takes off a uniform today and is inducted into the VA tomorrow is nearly impossible.”
Shinseki believes that the focus should be altered from sharing incompatible data in a troops current records to creating a clean set of records that he states the VA can interpret when the troop leaves the military years from now.
My take only, is that there is something a bit odd about this proclamation. What exactly is “incompatible data?” Who is creating the new record, and what stays and what gets tossed? As a Service Officer, it appears to me that there is some huge compromised territory here that can have grave detrimental aspects for any future claims, and the need for corroborated evidence that a veterans disability is service connected. Yes, I referencing that dreaded terminology of ‘revisionist history” but this time, revisionist medical history.
With highly skilled Information Technology experts in and out of the Government, coupled with the immense depth of knowledge about the Internet, which you recall had its birth at the Pentagon, why can we not solve this dilemma?
My mother used to say, “when nothing is happening something is happening.”
Congress has set a deadline of September 30th to finish the job. No chance romance! But it will be entertaining to hear the answers as to why more time is needed.
I say the Disability bean counters are slowing down the process. War is expensive, and more expensive afterward as the survival rate with modern medicine and evacuation technique has increased the disability claim process by 200 fold, and the pay outs could break the bank.
“Incompatible data ” – nonsense. I worked in the field, although in the private and not the military end, and specialized in the transfer of medical data between “incompatible” systems using a well established protocol called HL7.
I also visited with SAIC in DC doing this for military systems and the VA in Austin using the same technology.
I am sure that there are tons of bureaucratic obstructions and regulations but there are no technical obstacles to doing this.
I thought it had been done years ago.
I need to place a caveat on that comment – it assumes that the “data” actually exists somewhere in some computerized data format.
Perhaps the “incompatible data” Sheneki was referring to are hand scrawled notes on pieces of paper.
If that is the case then indeed someone will have to manually transcribe that data into a database
“Welp” as Ronnie Reagan used to say, I knew you were a “brainiac” from your first posting Tip! Great input. Now that you have outed yourself and your true skills.. should we expect more? Yes “incompatible” is a bit non-descriptive eh?